Belfast

My final stop before heading off to Scotland is Belfast. Obviously this city, moreso than any other in Northern Ireland, even Derry, is famous for its turbulent past, even quite recently.
The city centre is quite cosmopolitan, and walking around it you could imagine yourself being in just about any major city in the world. It's going further out into the suburbs that the troubles become more evident. I took a guided taxi tour of these areas - the tour was fantastic, being driven around in the classic black London-style cab, and the guide/driver was very knowledgeable.

Mural in the Protestant part of Belfast

Now, the East of Belfast is the protestant area, and the west is the catholic area. Protestants, if you'll remember, are the loyalists, keen to stay part of the UK, while the catholics tend to be the Nationalists, thinking of themselves more as Irish than English. The two sides, obviously, hate each other. In more recent years it has calmed down somewhat, but during the late sixties and early seventies, inspired by civil rights movements in the US and elsewhere, the unrest was the worst. In short, the place was a war zone. For two years public transport was cancelled because buses were regularly set on fire and used as barricades. Something like one in seven police officers were killed on duty. Hundreds of bombs went off during the troubles. What is most disturbing, however, is in the protestant area. Like Derry these people are fond of their murals. However, many of them depict "freedom fighters" - heroes of the UDA and UVF (the protestant answer to the IRA), famed often for the number of people they have killed.

Belfast is truly a city divided. In 1989, when the Berlin Wall came down, we believed that would be the last we'd see of that kind of segregation of a city. But Belfast has a number of such walls itself, to keep the two communities from killing each other. The first one was built in the 70s, and was intended to be up for only a few months. It is, of course, still standing. The last one was built as late as 2008. The houses near the walls even have metal cages around their backs that stand to the walls because of things like rocks and bricks that are often thrown over. Apparently 70% of people living in one side have never had a meaningful conversation with anyone living on the other side. Most people would not have ever even gone into their "opposing" territory. There are even heavy metal gates in the walls that are closed and locked after a certain time at night.